The Biscuit Bugle – Permit-Locked Regions and Sirius in Merope

Welcome to the 8th article of the Biscuit Bugle! This week we’ll be talking about the arrival of Sirius Corporation in Merope, the Alliance’s request for Thargoid data and materials, and a fascinating report about the galaxy’s Permit-Locked Regions.

Cover image: Blackmount Habitation, one of the few shipyards in the Pleiades Bubble

The History Behind: Permit Locked Regions

Written by CMDR Turkwinif

In 3300, a few unscrupulous commanders breached their nav-computer’s encrypted databanks and discovered, much to their surprise, large swaths of space that were locked behind unknown permits. Risking the potential loss of their pilot’s license, several shared their discoveries with fellow commanders, and soon enough the word had spread to every pilot across the human populated bubble, whispers of mysterious regions of space locked behind unobtainable permits. This prompted several commanders to head out and explore the locked regions themselves, even if they were halfway across the galaxy.

Late 3300 gave pilots a sense of bewilderment as they discovered that certain systems in the Horsehead Dark Region were apparently locked behind an unknown permit while others were not. This was quickly confirmed to be a fluke of the nav-computer since the permit requirements vanished after a few minutes: perhaps this was an omen of things to come.

In March of 3301, the Daedalus Wing reached Hyponia and began mapping the southern borders of the permit locked region, but was cut short due to developments in the Formidine Rift. Unfortunately, one member of the wing was killed by a thruster malfunction while navigating an asteroid field in the Rift. The last known waypoint the surviving member of the Daedalus Wing was travelling to was the Bovomit Badlands; however, all attempts to contact the wing since have failed.

A month later the First Great Expedition left the bubble and mapped out the border of Regor, just a thousand light years away from Sol. Many today speculate that Regor is connected to the Guardians since the majority of Guardian Ruins have been found in the surrounding area.

Nearing the end of 3301, independant explorer CMDR Marx successfully surveyed the open cluster NGC 2286, but in September of 3302 another independent explorer, upon arriving, confirmed it to be now locked.

Distant Worlds 3302 saw to the extensive mapping of the mysterious Bleia sector by many independent pilots, and to a lesser extent, Praei. On the other side of the galaxy, a sudden and surprising number of sectors around Barnard’s Loop became permit locked, making travel in the area extremely difficult. A few unlucky commanders were trapped inside of the sectors when the software update hit and had to be rescued by authorities. It’s suspected that the Pilot’s Federation locked down systems around Barnard’s Loop enmass to protect pilots from increasing reports of a threat in the area. Some businesses and commanders have been granted access to or bypassed the permit locks, such as the Wreaken Corporation and CMDR Salomé. Notably in March and April of 3303 a garbled distress signal was received from somewhere inside Col 70, and later thousands of covert and coded messages with CMDR Salomé speculated to be involved.

3303 started off with the Hyponia Horizon Mission, which succeeded in thoroughly mapping the outskirts of Hyponia, although the survey seemingly ended with an entirely different group of people than what they started with. CMDR Billy Chase himself extensively mapped out the borders of Praei by completing 16 orbits around it, giving pilots the clearest picture of the area yet, while CMDR Dinochrome mapped the area surrounding Bovomit. Nothing of interest was found around Bovomit, but the commander did note that the star density inside of the sector is noticeably lower than the surrounding space. As of now, the Children of Raxxla are in the process of mapping and collecting data from the area surrounding NGC 2286 as the secondary objective in the Monoceros Mission.

Several permit locked regions not mentioned above have yet to be mapped extensively, while other permits have come and gone through the years without a word from the Pilot’s Federation. Why are half of the known permit locked regions out in deep space? What’s hidden behind those permit locks? What knowledge is the Pilot’s Federation hiding from us concerning areas tens of thousands of light-years from home? What happened to the surviving member of the Daedalus Wing? What were the Wreaken Corporation and CMDR Salomé doing in the Col 70 sector, and what’s going on in there now? One can only hope that the passage of time brings answers.

Sirius’ Arrival at Merope

Over the weekend the Sirius Corporation, the well-known company that has a mixed reputation among Commanders, have reported that they will be expanding to the system of Merope in the following days. The reason for this expansion is for the Sirius Corporation to be able to support mining operations in the system, but many have speculated that the true purpose of this expansion is to gain the ability to collect Meta-Alloys from the barnacles in and around the system. This unexpected expansion has been received mostly negatively among Commanders, but it is unknown yet as to if the Sirius Corporation will be able to keep hold of their influence in this system if Commanders try to push them away from Merope.

The Alliance asks for Thargoid Data

Late last week the Pro-Alliance Union in the system of Kaushpoos started asking for data and materials retrieved from Thargoid vessels and bases. Early this week a glitch in the OS that our ships used locked us out of the Science Contact, currently making it impossible to deliver the data until further notice.

The Aegis Report

For the next few weeks I’ll be investigating and reporting about the Aegis faction as they expand in the Pleiades Bubble. This section will include systems, states, and the influence that Aegis has in the systems they’re operating in. Aegis is a science and research group of scientists from the Empire, Alliance, and Federation that joined together recently to study Thargoid technology. Many Commanders have dubbed this group ‘INRA 2.0’, as during the first Thargoid-Human conflict, Imperial and Federal scientists joined to study Thargoid technology, and later devised the Hyper-Mycoid that decimated the Thargoids, as well as being more of a shady military organisation, complete with it’s own fighter squadrons.

Canonn’s Codex

The Canonn Research Codex is a one-stop guide to find information about most things in the Milky Way Galaxy. It is constantly and accurately updated as new information becomes available, and is a very detailed aid to anyone looking to do research or investigate.

Ads and Recruitment

The Biscuit Bugle I will be doing the interesting locations segment weekly now, and I am requesting that if any Commanders want to help contribute to the Bugle, I’ll be taking submissions each week and posting a few locations that I’d recommend Commanders to visit each week. If you would like to submit a location, message me with the location, your Commander name, a short description, and if you would like a screenshot of the location’s main feature.

If anyone has any feedback about the Bugle, any suggestions for sections or events to report on, I would love to hear it. Thank you to all of my weekly readers for supporting and taking the time to read my articles at the end of each week.

I’ve been wondering for the past week about adding a new section to the Bugle. Who would like to have an audio version of the Bugle each week alongside the written Bugle, so my weekly readers can listen along as they read?

Disclaimer

This site was created using assets and imagery from Elite: Dangerous, with the permission of Frontier Developments plc for non-commercial purposes. It is not endorsed by nor reflects the views or opinions of Frontier Developments and no employee of Frontier Developments was involved in the making of it.